Saturday 19 June 2010 19.05 EDT
First published on Saturday 19 June 2010 19.05 EDT

The Formula One season approaches the halfway stage with next weekend's European grand prix at the Valencia street circuit with both Ferrari and Mercedes arguing that it is not a cosy duopoly between McLaren and Red Bull.

The claims by the Mercedes team principal, Ross Brawn, that his team are still in both the drivers' and constructors' championships appear a little far-fetched, but there is a feeling that Ferrari's Fernando Alonso could yet sneak below the radar to pose a real challenge to Lewis Hamilton, Jenson Button, Mark Webber and Sebastian Vettel.

Alonso says he always feels on holiday in Valencia, with the background of the sea behind the paddock, but he will be working especially hard here.

Ferrari have underperformed this season ever since Alonso won the opening race in Bahrain, but the car gets a major upgrade next week, especially in the area of aerodynamics. With its fast straights and slow corners the Valencia track – which has been won by Brazilians in its two years on the schedule, Felipe Massa in 2008 and Rubens Barrichello last year –has been compared to Montreal, which rewarded Ferrari's mechanical grip last weekend. But there are few overtaking opportunities at the Spanish circuit.

Alonso was third in Canada but thought he had a real chance of winning the race, which would have put him level with Hamilton, Button and Webber on two wins.

After eight rounds Hamilton leads the title race, three points ahead of Button, with Webber another three points behind. Alonso splits the Red Bull pair in fourth place, nine points behind Webber and four points ahead of Vettel.

"We will have major updates on the F10, which I hope will allow us to up our performance level," Alonso said last week. "Following on from that, we have further developments in the pipeline, which should arrive for England and Germany, which is to say that the European GP is simply the ninth round of the championship, not a last-ditch effort for Ferrari, which I heard some people saying.

"I don't see how they can say that given that we have not even reached the halfway point of the [19-race] season, and that after Valencia there will still be 10 grands prix to go.

"I've said it before and I'll say it again now: this is a stage event, and the final one of those stages will not come until November in Abu Dhabi. Things can change very quickly."

Take the cars out of the equation and the general feeling is that the best two drivers on the grid are Hamilton and Alonso, who had a difficult pairing at McLaren in the British driver's rookie year of 2007. Alonso has made a number of unforced errors this season, which is out of character for him, but he has been trying to squeeze everything from a car that has not been quite up to the task. That, he feels sure, is about to change.

Valencia, which does not reward superior downforce as much as mechanical grip created, could also prove another difficult race for Red Bull, who have had the fastest car all year and cannot understand why they are not leading the rest of the field.

The title race now appears to be between the leading five drivers, but Brawn insists that Nico Rosberg and Michael Schumacher are not out of it yet. "We are still within striking distance of the championship leaders," the Mercedes team principal says.

"Our car was well suited to the circuit in Montreal and our pace during the race was encouraging. Nico was clearly one of the quickest cars during the race and his climb from the midfield to sixth place was a very impressive performance.

"Looking ahead to Valencia, the circuit is similar to Montreal in many ways with long straights connected by slow corners which should suit our car." The brilliant Brawn will definitely be back – but we may have to wait until next season to see his cars mount a serious challenge.